Monthly Archives: October 2009

Somalia

In Somalia, a new template for fighting terrorism





India

Pakistan’s ISI trying to revive militancy in Indian Punjab


David Rohde: Taliban no longer ‘Al Qaeda lite’

Click to view slide show of the Haqqani Network. Pictured is a composite image of Siraj Haqqani. New York Times reporter David Rohde writes about his kidnapping by the Haqqani Network and seven-month captivity. Rohde tells us three things that longtime readers of The Long War Journal and more recently Threat Matrix already know: 1) […]


Pakistan

The military claimed 60 Taliban fighters and five soldiers were killed in the first day of operations in South Waziristan; the Taliban denied the claim and launched a fundraising campaign. Security forces detained 113 suspected Taliban fighters and extremists in Rawalpindi, Mardan, Swat, and Dera Ghazi Khan. The Taliban wounded two drivers in an attack […]


Iran

Jundallah attacked a meeting between Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps leaders and tribal leaders in Sistan-Baluchistan province, and a IRGC convoy, killing 28 officers and civilians. Brigadier General Nour Ali Shoushtari, the deputy commander for the IRGC’s ground forces, and Brigadier Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, the IRGC’s provincial commander for Sistan-Baluchistan, were killed in the attack.



Somalia

Somali police intelligence has confirmed that Shabaab sent “42 men armed with pistols” to government-controlled regions in Mogadishu to commit targeted killings. “Eritrea should be punished with severe sanctions for threatening the Horn of Africa region by supporting Somali rebels,” Somalia’s foreign affairs minister said.


Iraq

Security forces detained 17 wanted men in Basrah; seven insurgents, including a car bomb cell leader, in Baghdad and Mosul; and one insurgent in Huweija. One Iraqi was killed in a bombing north of Hillah and another was killed in a bombing in Baghdad.


Afghanistan

Afghan and Coalition forces killed 8 Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province and killed six more in Badghis province. Police detained three Taliban sub-commanders in Baghlan province. The Taliban killed one US soldier in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan.




Security requirements and extended US involvement in Iraq

An Iraqi Air Force Mi-17 helicopter takes off from Landing Zone Washington, in Baghdad’s International Zone, during the first night flight outside the air base at Taji since the new Iraqi Air Force was formed. Photo by William Lovelady, Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq Public Affairs. I’ve argued that beyond the political patina of […]



Pakistan

The military has started the South Waziristan offensive and claimed to have taken control of two towns; 30 Taliban fighters and 12 soldiers have been reported killed. Security forces killed 12 Taliban fighters in Mohmand and Bajaur, and detained 35 Hizb-ut-Tahir members in Islamabad and a suicide vest maker in Multan. The Punjab government, fearing […]




Philippines

Abu Sayyaf bombed a bridge in the town of Talipao on Jolo island, causing minor damage. Abu Sayyaf has stepped up attacks on infrastructure, targeting another bridge and a telecommunications cell site earlier in the week.


Al Qaeda

Afghanistan – Held by the Taliban: 7 Months, 10 days in captivity




Iraq

The US has canceled the deployment of a brigade destined for Iraq. Insurgents killed three policemen in Fallujah, a policeman and a civilian in Mosul, and two civilians in Baghdad, and destroyed a bridge with a car bomb in Ramadi. Two insurgents died during a premature detonation in Kirkuk.


Afghanistan

More than 20 Taliban fighters were killed during a NATO airstrike in Paktika province. The Taliban killed three US soldiers and wounded eight Afghan policemen in IED attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Thirteen criminals escaped from a jail in Balhk.



Pakistan

Pakistan – Four soldiers killed, 12 injured in South Waziristan operation


Somalia

Shabaab slaughtered a man in Mogadishu™s Bakara market and killed a police officer in Mogadishu. Shabaab rewarded the 17-year-old winner of a Koran recital in Kismayo with an AK-47 gun, two hand grenades, an anti-tank mine, and a computer. A UN agency is investigating three Somali businessmen based in Kenya on suspicion of diverting food […]



Analysis: What lies ahead in Waziristan

The military is set to take on the Taliban in South Waziristan, where the military has failed four times in the past. The operation will pit the Army and Frontier Corps against the Taliban’s best fighters on terrain the Taliban have owned for years.